~ Chronicles of Maine Island Living

Monthly Archives: July 2016

Hello, dear readers! The weather in Portland, Maine is not cooperating with me this morning! I had planned a photo shoot of our new townhome to share with you this morning.

However, it is a rainy, dreary day. Not good photography weather. I am going to delay the long awaited, much anticipated Diamond Cove photo shoot to a sunny day, to be determined according to weather. Sorry to disappoint.

In any case, my mom, dad, brother Dan, and his dog, Etta visited this weekend! We had a great time. Dan and Nancy gifted us a new Weber gas grill. He had it freighted to the island and then he and dad assembled it for us. Dan also helped install all our big, heavy wall things: coat rack, plate rack, taxidermy, and several large mirrors. He fixed the screen door so it closes and latches more quietly (trying to be a good neighbor!).

We christened the new ginormous dining room table, playing Scrabble and eating together around that big boy! I love the new kitchen! The layout is so much better than in the house in Maryland. I spent the last twenty years in a suboptimal cooking and prepping situation. I am excited to have a better designed kitchen and modern amenities like an ice maker in the freezer and a dishwasher!

We spent quite a bit of time this weekend with our dogs. Emma loved to play with Etta! And Emma learns a lot from Etta. Like how to chase the tennis ball on the parade grounds. So much tail wagging! We think Emma is recovering from her ear infections and is feeling better.

Darling daughter and I are headed to Portland today for more supplies. Must get ready for ferry. Here is a photo of Emma and Etta yesterday afternoon waiting on the dock for the ferry:

Emma, our newly adopted English Labrador, had an appointment with Dr. Katy of Falmouth Veterinary Hospital this afternoon. We set the appointment up to have her checked out and get prescriptions for heartworm and flea and tick medication. Falmouth Vet Hospital is a bright, friendly place. Emma seemed happy to be there. Could have been the treats!

However, her checkup revealed not one, but two, ear infections! Dr. Katy told us one ear was a two on a scale of four in terms of the infection, while the other ear was a four plus!!! Poor Emma!

God bless her, Emma never let on anything was wrong. No shaking her head, no noticeable symptoms. Dr. Katy said most dogs would not have tolerated the pain as well as Emma. The kind doctor cleaned her ears out (ick!) and administered an antibiotic. We will give her the second dose next week. Emma also had several shots.

What a great dog! She took it all like a champ! I love this dog so much!!! She has a ginormous heart. So sweet. So gentle. And this is how she is while she is sick and not feeling well. In the next twenty four hours she should start feeling better. I can’t wait until then.

Here is darling daughter and Emma on the ferry ride home after the appointment:

In terms of the unpacking of our household goods, we are basically done! Woo hoo! However, we still have to put some things away and do a bit of decorating. I am changing things up a bit from the house in Maryland. Essentially using the same stuff in new ways, in obviously new locations. Mixing it up a bit!

When our family visits on Friday and Saturday, we will hang some artwork, taxidermy, and whatnot on the newly painted walls. My brother, Dan, is bringing his drill. I might not put everything up. I am really liking the white walls and the uncluttered aesthetic. This is a major sea state change for me!

I can’t wait for the big reveal to you, my dear readers. We are targeting early Sunday afternoon for our completion date! Mark your calendars! I am really looking forward to showing you around the new townhouse! I will post some updates in the meantime.

Hello dear readers! Significant progress has been made getting unpacked! Darling daughter and I have about a dozen moving boxes left to unpack out of a total of eighty-eight! We are getting close to the finish line and it feels great!

On Friday afternoon my brother, Dan, his black Labrador, Etta, and my mom and dad are coming up for their very first sleepover!!! It is very exciting to have them stay over with us in our new home. Their visit has given us a target to shoot for in terms of getting fully unpacked and set up. We will be ready for them!

In the meantime, please enjoy these photos taken this morning at the Diamond Cove General Store:

And this photo of our yellow Labrador, Emma, making friends on the ferry:

This little girl was precious. I love making “ferry friends”. We are taking Emma for a vet check up this afternoon. Stay tuned for more updates on the unpacking!

Yesterday Eric, Nate, and Reggie from Bekins delivered eighty-eight (88!) boxes, as many pieces of furniture, and some miscellany to our new townhome in Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island, Maine! These three guys loaded the truck in Maryland last week. They did an excellent job.

Over the weekend the Bekin guys drove the fully loaded twenty five foot truck some 600 miles to Portland. About noon, the truck boarded a barge for the two-mile trip through Casco Bay to reach us on the island. Darling daughter met the truck in our golf cart to lead the crew to our townhouse.

The crew’s skill moving our belongings was evident. Within three hours, Eric (the crew chief), Nate, and Reggie had all our belongings on one of the three levels of the townhouse, beds reassembled, and boxes neatly stacked. Darling daughter and I are now officially up to our eyeballs in boxes!

Emma, our newly adopted yellow Labrador, spent part of the afternoon being the “store dog” of the day at the General Store at Diamond Cove, courtesy of Amy who runs the store and was also our real estate agent. Amy graciously agreed to host Emma.

In the middle of the afternoon, however, Emma decided it was time to come home. She got her leash off the hook and set out for home! Amy, realizing Emma had gotten loose, followed her to see where she would go. Emma came straight home!

Amy offered to take our clever dog back to the store until the guys were complete, but Emma went straight to her crate (she loves her crate!). She is such a good dog! Less than ten days on the island, and Emma knows where she lives!

Darling daughter and I said our goodbyes to Eric, Nate, and Reggie and got right to opening boxes. We started upstairs making beds so we wouldn’t have to spend another night sleeping on sofas. Her bedroom, being tiny, is nearly completely set up, down to the color coordination of her wardrobe hanging in the closet. Darling daughter had done a great job anticipating the size of her room (tiny!) and purged accordingly, making set up a proverbial breeze for her. My stuff is not so easy, but I will get there.

I am not going to post photos of our new home until we are set up. Going to focus on getting unpacked! Stay tuned!!!

Darling daughter painted the upstairs floors over the weekend! She did a great job! The grey painted floors exude cottage charm! Her bedroom (8 feet x 10 feet), mostly covered in plywood, is pictured below:

This is the guest room (12 x 12):

My bedroom (9 x 12):
This is the view from the top of the stairs looking toward the guest room on the left and my room on the right.

The Bekins Movers will be here about 1230 with all our worldly possessions! I am so looking forward to getting settled here in Maine. We will have to have an unpacking spree, darling daughter and me!!!

Not far from where Emma, our newly adopted yellow Labrador, takes care of business (if you know what I mean) there are two trees that look as if they are in an embrace:

I like the lichens on the big tree’s branches and the contrast between the light and dark trees.

The trees are across the way from the site of the Fort McKinley Ice House and Ice Pond, dating from the early 1900s. Because of the storm we had earlier, the air has cooled considerably. The water in the ice pond is still warm though. So there is fog on the water tonight.

We just had a bad thunderstorm, complete with hail, roll through the Portland area. I am happy to report that (1) darling daughter is ok (she was on the 355 ferry on her Home Depot run and sailed right into the storm) and (2) Emma, our newly adopted yellow Labrador, is ok and does not appear frightened by thunder, hail, or high winds. I am ok, too. Busy scrubbing the wood floors in the kitchen, dining room, and living room with Murphy’s Oil Soap.

Here is M Dog this morning at the General Store on Great Diamond Island. Coffee run.

Darling daughter has taken it upon herself to resolve the bedroom floor dilemma. She painted her bedroom floor “porch floor grey” today.

We like it so much we have made an executive decision to go ahead and paint the floors in the other two bedrooms “porch floor grey” as well. It gives the rooms a cottage vibe. Which is what we were aiming for. We had painted floors in our cottage in Maryland.

Darling daughter is going to take the ferry back to Portland this afternoon to acquire more paint from our friends at Home Depot. If the floors are painted by tonight they will be dry for the movers on Monday. I love that she is so ambitious!

Dear Goodness. We have been at it all day. We took the 0630 ferry with our new dog, Emma, from Great Diamond Island to Portland, then drove to my parents’ in Massachusetts. We had a nice visit and lunch with my brother Dan, his black Labrador, Etta, and mom and dad. Dan washed all the cars including our Mary Passat. He is going to sell Greta Jetta for us. While she has been a great car, it doesn’t make sense to keep a car we are not going to use. That is that.

Here are Emma and Etta getting some loving (and treats!) from Granpy and spending time together in the kitchen:

Heading back to the island after our visit, we stopped at Home Depot in Portland for some cleaning, prepping, and painting supplies. We have some upcoming projects!

First is flooring. We had the old carpeting removed from the townhouse and then the stairs recarpeted the other day. The new carpet is great! Check it out:

The old carpeting came out of the bedrooms too. It turns out there are fir floors, in the three bedrooms, in varying condition. Darling daughter and I were hoping the floors could be refinished. The guest room is in the best shape and the most likely candidate for refinishing.

Darling daughter’s room, not so much.

Check out that plywood! We will get some quotes to have two of the three bedrooms refinished. In the meantime, darling daughter is going to paint the floor in her bedroom! We also have a rug to use over the plywood. I think we can make the floor look good, with some elbow grease, creativity, and a gallon of paint.

The second project is a cleanup. In advance of the movers arriving with our household goods on Monday, we have got to get the bedroom floors cleaned up. They are very dusty and dirty and we want to minimize the mess on the newly carpeted stairs. Once thoroughly scrubbed, we are going to cover the floors with plastic to keep the dirt off the carpet. The floors under the carpeting are very dirty because this place had been abandoned for some fifty years.

The history of our townhouse is that it was constructed in an Army barracks built in the late 1800s. The Army base, Fort McKinley, was abandoned after World War II and fell into disrepair until a private developer converted the Army buildings into private residences in the 1990s. In other words, that is historic dust and dirt we are dealing with.

Darling daughter shopped the Home Depot for everything we need to tackle these projects. Then we picked up the slipcovers for the sofa and loveseat that came free with purchase of the townhouse from the dry cleaners. These had gone out to be cleaned last week. Things are really coming together!

We dropped our freight at Casco Bay Lines to be shipped on the 745 ferry. Then we grabbed some cold drinks (it was really hot here today!) and boarded the ferry with Emma.

A friend told me the name of the ferry “Wabanaki” is Native American for “People of the First Light”. I told him it means “Ride Home”. I was so ready to get home! To our new home! On Great Diamond Island! Woo hoo!